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Tag Archives: Frances Hodgson Burnett

According to Deadline, there’s a new movie adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic children’s novel The Secret Garden. It’s got some kidlit movie cred – David Heyman and StudioCanal are producing, and they did the Harry Potter movies and Paddington. Jack Thorne – who is also currently adapting His Dark Materials – is set to write; his recent credits are pretty varied and include Nick Hornby adaptation A Long Way Down as well as crime show The Last Panthers, so . . . I’m curious to see what he does with this. I’ve always been more of a Little Princess girl, as far as Burnett goes, but I’m definitely interested to see how this turns out.

Deadline is reporting that Guillermo Del Toro and Lucy Alibar are co-writing a movie adaptation of The Secret Garden for Universal. I am both intrigued and worried by the fact that this adaptation will apparently be set “in the American South at the turn of the 20th Century.” I’m hoping for something Southern Gothic in tone, I guess, though I love the setting of the original. Deadline also implies that there is literal magic involved, though I’m not sure if that’s an announced part of this new movie or just a misunderstanding of the original text. I hope the latter, but given that Guillermo Del Toro is involved, I suppose it’s likely that they’re going to add magic. I’m afraid that will ruin the message of the book, frankly, which is that people have to make their own magic through care and work and love. (Well, that’s among the themes, anyway.) But trust me: I’ll be following this one closely.